


The Sun Rises on Nite Owl

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Watchmen (Comic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-04
Updated: 2004-12-04
Packaged: 2018-01-25 04:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1632080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Story by septicemic</p><p>Dan Dreiberg talks to the New York Gazette about costumed crimefighting, the Invasion of New York, and Rorschach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sun Rises on Nite Owl

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sullen Siren

 

 

**New York Gazette Magazine - November 2, 2005**  
 _Nite Owl the second, AKA Sam Hollis, AKA Dan Dreiberg, has finally revealed himself to the public after forty years in the costumed crimefighting business. In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Invasion of New York, he granted the New York Gazette Magazine's Ted Malone this exclusive interview._

**Mr. Hollis--Mr. Dreiberg... ah, Mr. Owl?**

You can call me Dan, if you'd like.

**Am I correct in assuming that you took on the pseudonym "Hollis" to pay tribute to the first Nite Owl?**

Yes, that's right. Hollis Mason was a dear friend of mine. It was a great pleasure to be able to sit down with somebody and just talk, without having to maintain any illusions. You have to be careful--costumed adventuring can turn you into an inveterate liar.

When Hollis was murdered... God, 1985 was a terrible year. For everyone.

**Is there anything you can tell us about what really happened in Antarctica?**

Well, I... I won't deny that Adrian Veidt was involved, but I made him a promise of confidentiality, which I'm not about to break. On the other hand, I do want to say a few things about Rorschach.

**Can you shed any light on the debate still raging over the veracity of Rorschach's journals?**

Again, I can't talk about anything relating to Veidt. And I can certainly understand how Rorschach would be seen by many people as an unreliable source. But those were his journals, not forgeries, and he did die in Antarctica.

**Was he a hero, as the _New Frontiersman_ has always claimed?**

I'm Jewish; you don't have to guess what I think of the New Frontiersman. But--yes. He died--this is a clich, but it's true--he died as he'd lived, fighting for a more moral world. I think he deserves respect for that.

**It seems you were the person who knew him best; certainly the person who maintained the longest association with him.**

I knew him for twenty years. Teamed up in '65, split officially in '77, reunited one last time in '85. He was hard to like, anybody will tell you that, but at the beginning I certainly did, and... I guess I never really stopped. I never entirely gave up on him. I guess I was the only one.

**Did you know his real name before it was revealed by the police after his capture?**

No. Nobody did. You have to understand about Rorschach, though--he barely had a "real" identity. He was Rorschach. When he took off the coat and the mask, he was just Rorschach in disguise. He was almost like Dr. Manhattan that way. I mean, I had a life outside of Nite Owl. Sandra--my wife, formerly Laurie Juspeczyk--had a life outside of the Silk Spectre. When we first met, there might've been a little bit of Walter Kovacs still in there, but I don't think there was any left by the time he died. I... I don't know.

But the point is, I didn't have to know the name his mother gave him to know who he was.

**Tell our readers about your early days as a costumed adventurer.**

Oh, God. [laughter] Mostly they were embarrassing. There's a pretty steep learning curve on that kind of thing. I made a lot of really stupid mistakes when I was starting out. Fortunately, I was up against a lot of really stupid criminals.

**What about Underboss and Big Figure?**

Now those guys weren't stupid. But I didn't butt heads with them until Rorschach and I got together to clean up the Lower East Side. No, from '62 to '64 it was mostly your average felons, jewel thieves, small-scale bank robbers, heroin dealers, that kind of thing. Rorschach met more violent adversaries right from the start. I don't know why that was. He almost had a sixth sense when it came to flushing out murderers and rapists and child molesters. Of course, he was more comfortable with the violence than I was... I could certainly get the job done, but he was far more willing to go beat the tar out of somebody. Even in the early days. Long before he actually killed anybody.

**How did you become partners with Rorschach?**

I actually have the criminal fraternity to thank for that. I was bringing this guy in for smuggling and giving him my standard crime-doesn't-pay speech, and he said, "Whatever, man, I'm just glad you ain't Rorschach." I said, "Rorschach as in ink blots?" And he started telling me all about this guy in a fedora and trenchcoat and a weird black-and-white mask. He was terrified, this smuggler. I thought, geez, this guy must've been operating for years to build up that kind of reputation. Imagine my embarrassment when I found out he was twenty-four!

Anyway, I said to myself, I'm never going to beat this Rorschach at his own game, so why not take the path of least resistance? There was a trash can on the corner of 40th and 7th that he was using as his mailbox-he used that trash can for twenty years. I found out after he was arrested that his apartment looked right down on that corner.

**Isn't that where the Institute for Extraspatial Studies was located?**

Yes. Yes, it was. Ah... what was I saying?

**About your first meeting with Rorschach.**

Oh, of course. I'm sorry. I'm getting old. Anyway--I left him a message, and he met me in one of the abandoned buildings I owned at the time. He was a lot shorter than I expected. That was my first impression. [laughter]

When I proposed a partnership, he was completely uninterested. He didn't even try to be polite about it; he just said "No." So I said, "Well, since you went out of your way to come over here, let me at least give you a ride," and that's when I brought my airship in through the delivery bay. Rorschach looked up at Archie and said, "Hurm," and by the time I showed him my scale models for the hoverbikes I was planning, he was sold. He always claimed he didn't need anything to do his job but two fists and a lack of sympathy, but there were some of my gadgets that he really appreciated.

**Like the grappling hook gun?**

Especially the grappling hook gun. I just wish he hadn't broken a police officer's sternum with it.

**Let's go back to happier times...**

Yes, let's. Man, '65, '66, those were great years. Fighting crime was fun. At least, for a while it was. By '68 or '69... it was different. Every day, the world just got meaner. That's what it felt like. It got to both of us after a while.

**What do you mean when you say _meaner_?**

Okay, well, if you insist, I'll give you an example. Sometime in the winter of '69, there was a new gang trying to take over the Lower East Side. That was our territory, Rorschach's and mine. So we were working from the ground up, like we always did: starting with street-level pimps and pushers, making our way up the chain of command. And we found this--it was a disused hospital building, I think. One of the pimps Rorschach beat up sent us there. We were expecting it to be just another dope den. God, it's been a long time since I thought about this.

It was a dope den. But it was full of little girls. Immigrants, I think most of them were from Afghanistan, none of them spoke any English, and this gang was renting them out. Thirteen, twelve, eleven-year-old kids. We kicked the door down and they all swarmed around us. Like abandoned kittens. Except for this one girl-she was lying on the floor in the corner, not moving, and I went over there to see if she was all right. She had syphilis. Gaping sores all over her body. Horrible.

So I stayed down there in the basement, trying to attend to these girls' medical needs as best I knew how, and Rorschach went upstairs, and the next thing I saw was Rorschach dragging this guy--at the time I didn't know if he was running the place or just a customer--dragging this guy down the steps by the hair, throwing him down, kneeling on his chest and trying to strangle him. He would've done it if I hadn't pulled him off the guy. We were violent; we were always violent, I won't pretend otherwise, but we didn't kill people. We were the good guys, you know?

I had to get Rorschach in a headlock before he calmed down. He was screaming through his mask. Screaming. He'd gone somewhere I couldn't follow him. I was never quite sure he came all the way back.

**But you continued to work together for seven years after that.**

More like four. He just kept getting stranger, more and more distant. By '74 he was effectively working alone. Then, of course, I retired in '77, and he didn't, which meant our partnership was officially over.

**I apologize for the bluntness of this question, but I have to ask it: Who killed Rorschach?**

Dr. Manhattan did. So, obviously, there was a good reason. Knowing Rorschach, I don't think he would've wanted it any other way, under the circumstances. I can't blame Manhattan. He wouldn't have done it unless the situation forced him.

I wasn't there when it happened. When I came outside, there was just... A lot of blood in the snow, and Rorschach's hat.

I can't blame Manhattan, but... The man could do anything. He could've stopped Rorschach's heart. [snaps fingers] Like that. He could've done that without even moving. He could've... he could've left a body to bring home.

It's my fault. I shouldn't have let him walk away. I should've gone after him.

**You just said that what happened was what Rorschach wanted.**

What we want isn't always what we deserve.

**Mayor D'eath has spoken lately of putting up a historical memorial outside Rorschach's apartment building.**

I've heard about that. I think it's a good idea, but-they'll probably want me to come to the dedication, and I don't know if I will. City government did nothing but thwart him while he was alive. I'm not sure if they want to honor him with that plaque, or make him a sideshow. The F.O.P. is heavily against it, of course; there'll be demonstrations... it'll be a mess.

I had a headstone put up for him. I won't say where it is.

**Rorschach's perspective was conspicuously absent from the exhibit on the Invasion of New York that the Smithsonian mounted earlier this year.**

Yes, I noticed. My wife didn't go; she's the kind of person who puts the past behind her, and I'm the kind of person who lives on memories.

**Would you say you're nostalgic?**

I... wouldn't use that word.

**Okay. Did you have any other thoughts on the Smithsonian exhibit?**

I didn't really examine it critically; others have done that, quite thoroughly, and certainly better than I ever could. I just went... to remember.

I was struck by the number of young people there--kids who couldn't have been old enough to remember '85 like we do. They don't remember Dr. Manhattan, when he was more than a chapter in their textbooks. They don't know about Rorschach or the Keene Act. They were just staring blankly at the blown-up pictures of carnage. I've been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington--several times, actually; some of my estate will go to them after I'm dead--and, you know, that was sixty years ago, but the kids I've seen there seem to feel a real connection to that tragedy, not just a gaping amazement.

**Have you thought of becoming a museum curator? I'd think you could do a better job with an exhibit like that.**

Oh, no. My agreement with Veidt would get in the way. The only thing I really ask is that at least a few people remember Rorschach as more than a kook or a murderer. I can't expect much else.

**You've taken a step towards that goal by giving us this interview.**

I hope so.

**Now that you're officially and publicly retired, what will you do with your time?**

Probably the same things I did in the early '80s--I was retired then, too. I have plenty of money to indulge my hobbies. I'm also working on a book.

**A memoir, like Under the Hood?**

No. It's about birds.

 


End file.
